it's the midwest, nothing around here is normal

so I follow the trail just to see what happens

and I get to this roughly circular patch of grass in the forest

and standing about ten feet from me

are four deer

just standing and staring at me

so at this point I have no clue what to do

so I slowly approach the deer

and they start walking back and around the edge of the circle

I ended up circling with the deer for a bit

some cardinals flew straight through the area a bit into the circling

and I eventually end up in a position

where the deer are standing in an arc on the side of the circle where the entrance is

and I'm on the complete opposite side

away from the exit

away from getting to my car

that was the worst moment

luckily we kept circling

and eventually I get back near the exit and decide "this is going nowhere, I'm leaving"

so I start up the trail

and this big doe follows me up the trail a ways

and just stares at me

✝️

so here I am squatting halfway up the trail, locking eyes with a doe staring at me from the entrance to the grassy patch

and eventually I get the feeling

they don't want me leaving yet

so I come back and do some more circling

a whole buncha crows fly around at some point, I could barely see them but I could hear them all around

a woodpecker showed up on a tree I was actively standing under

and if you know woodpeckers, they're skittish little things

that kind of thing doesn't happen, they don't get that close, ever

eventually the deer just walked into the woods and left me standing there

the big doe still stood there, just outside the circle in the woods

still staring at me

so I walked back up the trail to my car

and I'm just about to get into my car when there's a rustling behind me

from a different random forest path I hadn't noticed before

so I go down THAT trail

I didn't see any animals

but I ended up at this little patch of raised ground with tree branches hanging heavy overhead

and there was a whole bunch of stonework